Madison church supports LeRoy Butler, invites him to speak

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LeRoy Butler

Madison church supports LeRoy Butler, invites him to speak

LeRoy Butler

MADISON (WITI) — A Madison church is trying to make a statement by supporting former Green Bay Packers player LeRoy Butler.

A Wisconsin church recently cancelled its plans to have Green Bay Packers Hall of Famer LeRoy Butler speak to its members — apparently over Butler’s support of the NBA’s Jason Collins for coming out as being gay.

Collins played with the NBA’s Boston Celtics and Washington Wizards this season. The coming out makes Collins the first active openly gay male athlete in the four major American pro team sports. Here is the lone tweet that he sent out then.

Butler says the pastor of the church in question — which Butler declines to identify — offered to let Butler deliver the speech if he would ask for forgiveness and delete his tweet. Butler declined.

“He said, ‘Listen, if you won’t apologize, neither will we,’ and he hung the phone up,” said Butler during a sports radio talk show on Wednesday. “As a man, you gotta stand for something. You can’t just let people just, just ’cause you don`t agree with their beliefs, just let ’em push you around.”

Now, Saint Dunstan’s Episcopal Church in Madison is inviting Butler to speak. Details on the event haven’t yet been finalized, but it is expected sometime in June.